The Passing Minutes
by tophetangel
Summary: The minutes pass until Pam has to take the biggest walk of her life. PB&J/Jam wedding drabble. A short read. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N - This is a companion piece to a story I wrote last week entitled "The Minutes". Feel free to check that out as well, but I think both stories can stand alone. Pam's minutes before she takes the biggest walk of her life. **

**Reviews are awesome.**

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She eyed the dress hanging in the corner.

It was more than a dress.

It was her future. Hanging there before her.

She smiled as her sister slipped the dress out of the garment bag.

She closed her eyes as the satin slipped over her skin and didnt open them until her sister has buttoned the last button.

She waited patiently as her sister fastened her veil to the clip in her hair.

She turned to face the mirror.

Face to face with herself, as a bride, she wiped away the tears and asked her siser for a few moments alone.


	2. Chapter 2

She approached the mirror slowly, she pulled her veil around her shoulders.

More tears escaped as she looked herself over, shrouded in the bright white hue she barely recognized herself.

She twisted a curl through her finger and fussed with her veil again. Her hands navigated their way over the pearls of her bodice and rested on her hips.

She wondered what he would be thinking when he saw her walking down the aisle.

She wondered if she could keep it together when she saw him there, waiting for her.

Her eyes found the old clock on the wall. Thirty-five minutes to go.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N - A longer chapter to end my day. Reviews in my inbox make me grin!**

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She wandered to the window.

Her heart jumped when she realized she could see right into his room across the courtyard.

She giggled as she watched him sitting there, legs stretched out before him.

The giggle turned into a laugh as she watched him click his shoes together.

"He has to hate those." She said aloud.

They had spent an entire morning scouring stores for his wedding shoes at the mall.

"I'm buying my own shoes." He'd announced months before. "There is just something wrong about wearing _rented_ shoes."

They'd agreed on the shiny black dress shoes. She made him try on three pairs, all in different sizes. She'd wanted him to be comfortable.

After nearly an hour in the department store he assured her they were fine, and they spent the rest of the day drinking smoothies and making fun of other mall patrons.

She watched as he stood and walked to the mirror, adjusting his jacket and smoothing his hair.

She smoothed her own hair subconsciously as she watched him through the window.

She had told him to wear his hair the way he always did.

Seeing him with his hair meticulously coifed on their wedding day wouldn't have been right.

In return, he'd asked her to pull her hers half up, in a clip, the way she had before she had gotten her hair cut shortly after their first date.

They would be wearing their hair much the same they had that fateful night a few years back.

The night she told him, "I _can't_"

She glanced at the clock.

Thirty one minutes until she promised him she _would_.


	4. Chapter 4

She turned when she heard the door knob jiggle.

She carefully walked across the room, her skirt swishing as she walked.

She didnt want her mother to know she had been watching him through the window.

"The sun is threatening to come out, you want to take a few pictures in the courtyard with dad?" Her mother asked softly.

"Of course." She smiled as she walked out of the room.

Her favorite picture of her and her father had been taken many years ago in that same courtyard, after an Easter service.

She wanted another picture with her daddy in that same spot, on the biggest day of her life.

She held back the tears as she watched her father do the same as he saw her in her dress for the first time.

"You look beautiful." He whispered as he kissed her forehead.

"Thank you daddy." She whispered as she took his hand and walked from the chapel.


	5. Chapter 5

She smiled as she clutched her father's hand as her mother snapped a few pictures.

"Mom, what time is it?" She asked as she looked up, watching the sun peek behind the clouds again.

"One thirty-three." Her mother told her.

"I should head back in. I want to go over my vows one more time."

Her mother grabbed her train, and her father led her back into the tiny church.

"I'll be back for you." Her father smiled as she opened the door to her room. "To take the walk of a life time."

She smiled as she choked back the tears, nodded at her father and disappeared into the room.

She glanced at the clock again.

Twenty-six minutes to go.


	6. Chapter 6

She sat at the small desk in the corner.

She traced her fingers along the warped wood before taking out her vows.

She stared at the stained glass windows and thought about her future.

Barbeques on a tiny patio. Little disagreements about the thermostat. Painting nursery walls. Planting flowers on a small terrace. Holidays with the family.

In each scenario he was there, with his trademark grin and sassy comebacks.

She couldn't imagine them without him.

He'd been her rock for many years.

He was her rock even when she was oblivious to the fact.

He'd been there no matter what. He was the constant in her life for so long.

She thought for a second about the brief months he'd been gone.

He didn't know it, but he was still her rock, even though he was hundreds of miles away.

When she cancelled her wedding she'd rehearsed their phone conversation a million times, but could never get her fingers to dial the numbers.

She would look up from reception and stare at the dark haired man in his old desk.

If she stared long enough he would appear in the former temp's place; ready to get up and grab a jelly bean at any time.

She shook her head, trying to shake the thoughts away with the physical movement.

From this day forward he would always be there.

Twenty-one minutes until he declared just that in front of God and their family and friends.


	7. Chapter 7

She scanned her eyes over her vows for the third time.

She shook her head and reached across the desk for the pen.

Something was just... _off._

She wrote as if her hands were possessed, her hand flying over the page as she wrote.

When she finished she snatched up her new vows and started to pace the room as she read.

"These aren't my original vows. When I looked at them again this afternoon, they just weren't right." She stopped and leaned against the door frame.

"It took me years to see the love you had for me, but I want you to know I _felt _it a long time ago. You were everything I ever wanted, everything I ever needed, and I wish it hadn't taken me so long to see it." She started pacing again. "Thank you for being patient."

"I never thought I could have a love like this, the kind every girl dreams of, but loses sight of as she grows older. You are my prince charming, the one who rode in on his three-hole-punch horse and brought me to a beet farm instead of the sunset on the horizon." She giggled.

"We are perfectly imperfect for each other, and I can't imagine my life with out you. I love you." She smiled.

Her eyes traveled to the clock. Sixteen minutes and forty-five seconds.

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**A/N - Reviews are awesome.**

**Happy Office Thursday!**


	8. Chapter 8

She paced the room carefully; watching her dress swish as she walked.

She paused in front of the mirror for the fourth time and took a deep breath.

She wondered if _he_ was this nervous.

She shook her head and sighed.

He would be the _last_ person in the tiny church to be nervous on _this_ day.

Wait.

_Why was she nervous?_

She panicked for a moment, waving her hands in front of her face, trying to gulp in the extra oxygen.

"Stop it." She heard a voice behind her and was relieved when the voice registered as her sister's.

"If you were marrying..." Her sister paused and sighed heavily. "..._You know who_, I would let you carry on like that. But you're _not_, and you need to stop it."

She stopped and stared at her sister.

"He's your lobster."

She giggled. Many nights had been spent on her sister's couch watching reruns of their favorite shows, talking more about her best friend than the fiancé who had ditched her once again to find the bottom of a bottle.

"I know." She nodded firmly.

"So stop it already." Her sister nodded firmly back and quietly left the room.

Twelve minutes and fifty-five seconds.

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**A/N - Big Finale this week and I'm excited! Paul Lieberstein is awesome but I hate the direction they took with Toby... Aaaaaand, we need Jim to get that ring on her finger so I can be prophetic dammit!**


	9. Chapter 9

She grabbed her bouquet and stood in front of the mirror again.

"This is it." She sighed to herself.

"Years in the making." Her sister smiled as she came back in for her own bouquet. "I just talked to the pastor. They want us to go to the sanctuary to wait; they want us to go now, so the groom doesn't spot his bride in transit."

"I think he saw me already." She smiled as she took one last look in the mirror.

"What?? Did you catch him peaking?"

"No." She said quietly and pointed to the courtyard. "Taking pictures with Daddy, I felt him."

"You _felt_ him?" Her sister gave her a cynical look.

"Yeah." She shuffled her feet under the layers of silk. "Over the years... I've sort of developed a... I don't know... sixth sense I guess, I can feel him when he looks at me."

Her sister simply nodded her head, images of her sister peeking at the lanky salesman only moments after he looked up at her. "I guess you have." She smiled.

"Why do I feel nervous?" She asked.

"It has nothing to do with him, if that's what you're thinking. It has to do with your weird shyness and knowing that in ten minutes every pair of eyes in this place is going to be on at you."

She stood there for a moment before finally laughing so hard her flowers shook. "Yeah, that's probably it!"

"Come on dork, we gotta get you married off."

She followed her sister out and glanced at the old clock one more time.

Eight minutes until she would be the center of attention, and officially the center of his life.

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**A/N - I went a little lighter with Pam, I think its kind of her way of dealing with things. What do you guys think?**

**I know you're reading, so why not review? It's the polite thing to do. **

**LOL.**


	10. Chapter 10

She walked just behind her sister on their way to the sanctuary.

She thought about the walk she was about to take in a few short minutes.

The walk that would change her life forever.

She heard the chatter of excited guests in the hallway. The voice of her over-emotional boss much louder than the others.

She smiled, remembering the 'distraction' plan her fiancé had concocted to keep their boisterous boss busy and out of their hair on their big day.

She quietly scanned the hallway, looking for him, smiling as she passed his parents, pausing for a brief hug from each of them.

Her sister closed the doors of the sanctuary behind them while her mother adjusted her veil before kissing her cheek.

"I have to go." Her mother whispered, motioning to the waiting usher. "I'll see you in a few."

She smiled at her mother and turned to father, trying to keep it together for those last five minutes before she had to take the walk of her life.


	11. Chapter 11

She nervously smoothed her hair and adjusted her veil.

"Stop." Her father whispered. "You look beautiful."

She nodded with a gentle smile and checked to make sure her vows were safely tucked away.

"I've been dreading this day since the day you were born." Her father said softly. "I'm losing my baby."

"No you aren't daddy." She shook her head.

"He's a good guy. He'll treat you right. That's all a father could hope for." He shrugged.

"He's the best." She smiled. "I don't deserve him."

"In my eyes, _he's_ the lucky one." Her father grinned.

"We're going to start heading out." Her sister's smiling face appeared around the door.

She nodded, and held the tears back as her father took her arm and lead her out of the tiny room.

Two minutes and thirty-five seconds.

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**A/N - Ok, the final two chapters will be up tomorrow. I wanted to wrap this up before the season finale. **

**Reviews make my day... hint. hint...**


	12. Chapter 12

She inhaled deeply as she stood there next to her father.

The bridesmaids joked with their groomsmen and adjusted their flowers as the organ music flowed from the chapel.

She peered around the sea of red dresses in front of her and spotted him standing at the front of the church.

She smiled as she watched him shove his hands in his pockets.

It was her favorite nervous tick of his, she always thought it was so cute the way he'd shove his hands in his pockets and rock ever-so-slightly on his heels.

She'd watched him do it a million times over the years. He would do it when he was nervous, when he didn't know what to say, when he was waiting.

This time, he was waiting.

Waiting for her.


	13. Chapter 13

She let out an uneven breath as the last bridesmaid had taken her spot at the altar.

The ushers closed the door and waited for their cue.

The organ music softly faded. Her heart began to race as she heard the familiar notes.

Bum...Bum...ba..daa...

The ushers reopened the doors and there he was.

Waiting for her.

The way he looked at her as she stood there...she had never felt so beautiful.

His smile lit the chapel as she clutched her fathers arm, her flowers shaking slightly as she made her journey down the aisle.

Her father kissed her cheek. Whispered he was proud of her and that he always would be.

As she took the arm of her grinning groom, she gave his hand a gentle squeeze, and any nervousness she'd felt had faded away.

The minutes had passed, and now forever had begun.

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**A/N - So what do we think folks? I'm so excited for tonight's finale... hopefully more wedding stories will pop up once JAM gets engaged tonight. (If they dont, the writers better expect an angry mob with me leading the way, preggo or not!)**


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